Diotima serves as an interdisciplinary resource for anyone interested in patterns of gender around the ancient Mediterranean and as a forum for collaboration among instructors who teach courses about women and gender in the ancient world. This site includes course materials, the beginnings of a systematic and searchable bibliography, and links to many on-line resources, including articles, book reviews, databases, and images. Ross Scaife and Suzanne Bonefas launched this project in early 1995; since that time it has been developed mainly by Scaife, but with help and contributions from many quarters.

Newcomers to the pleasures of classical Greek literature may be interested to know that we have borrowed the name for our project from a tantalizing passage in Plato's Symposium, where Socrates claims to be passing on to his friends what he himself has previously learned about Eros
from a woman named Diotima from Mantinea, who "in this matter was very wise, and in many others as well."

Further Develoment: The sky is the limit. We believe that Diotima is an appropriate venue for a series of peer-reviewed essays, and we are open to suggestions and offers of help in making that happen. Most of all we want Diotima to be as useful as possible for the widest possible audience and we welcome any comments and suggestions you might have.

Anahita-l is an open discussion forum for anyone who wants to be kept informed of enhancements to Diotima. There are two other ways you can keep up with Diotima: you can check back sporadically and scan the What's New page, or you can register that page (or any other) with the URL-Minder. This free service is a private matter -- we don't have any way of knowing who has signed up.